Posts Tagged ‘autism’

In-Network, Out-Of-Network, and Preferred Providers – Read This Before Buying a Health Plan: One of the benefits of a health plan is decreased rates for services with certain doctors and health care providers. The terms for these relationships are:

Preferred Provider Organization – Insurance carriers establish a list of contracted health care providers that have agreed to a discounted fee schedule for their health plan members. This PPO list is referred to as a provider directory of participating doctors and health care providers. Read more...

Autistic people often exhibit quirky behavior that is not appropriate in a social setting, ruins clothing or toys, and hurts them. Things like biting on a their collars or sleeves, picking at their skin, flapping their arms, making a high pitched scream, jumping up and down…sometimes these behaviors are in response to sensory stimuli, sometimes they are provoked by anxiety, sometimes they are a way to communicate, and sometimes they are just a bad habit. Whatever the case may be, often the more we try to stop them, the more they persist or morph into something worse. When dealing with quirky behaviors, rather than try to stop, try to REPLACE the behavior with something less destructive and more socially acceptable. Read more...

Friends, family, neighbors and even teachers often do not know how to approach a child with autism and make a connection without overwhelming the child. Most people mean well, and of course, want to communicate and connect with the child, but struggle with the best way to approach a child with autism. Here are some suggested do’s and don’ts when socializing with the autistic person in your life. Read more...

April is Autism Awareness Month, a time to come together, remember those affected, and raise money and awareness for this disorder that hurts so many. Join Autism Speaks http://www.autismspeaks.org/ in celebrating World Autism Awareness Day on April 2 and Light It Up Blue http://www.lightitupblue.org/Markslist/home.do to help shine a light on autism. Whether it’s your front porch or local city hall, an office party or a banquet, the whole world is going blue to increase awareness about autism. Read more...

My name is Ron Filice and my company, Filice Insurance, along with my sister company, www.eIndividualhealth.com are giving our full support to Autism Awareness Month this April. I have been personally affected by autism, my 12 year old nephew struggles with the disorder. I continue to be amazed by both his struggles and his progress. I know that there is a brilliant mind and soul behind every person struggling with autism, I know that the world will be a better place if their unique talents are able to contribute to society, and I know that with continued research, support, therapy and services we get better help for these special people, and ultimately, a cure. Join us this April, and April 2nd for World Autism Day, a time to light it up blue in support and solidarity. Read more...

This is the third part of the series focusing on inferencing, especially for children with Autism. To review, in Part 1, I spoke about tuning into all of the sounds in the environment and inferring where they’re from and what they mean. In Part 2, I spoke about inferring facial expressions and body language before pairing it with any meaningful language so that the child can interpret the emotion before he or she has to process the language. In part 3, we will be building inferencing by integrating expressive language for the child to infer what a speaker means by moving from concrete to more abstract language and by using indirect language, such as indirect commands for the child to tune into, understand, and act upon. How to pay for speech therapy? Get health insurance for children now.Read more...

Speech and language deficits are often the first sign of autism. Some people with autism never learn to speak, or speak only in rote phrases that they have hear thousands of times. Understandably, this inability to communicate causes panic and alarm, and parents are anxious for speech therapists to teach their autistic child words. But, speech and language begins well before words come out. Before anyone can learn to speak, they must master non-verbal communication and inferencing. In part 1, we used the acronym HAWK to describe the need to listen to and identify noises. In part 2, we are addressing the importance of body language in inferencing and interpreting speech. Read more...

Speech and language deficits are often the first sign of autism. Some people with autism never learn to speak, or speak only in rote phrases that they have hear thousands of times. Understandably, this inability to communicate causes panic and alarm, and parents are anxious for speech therapists to teach their autistic child words. But, speech and language begins well before words come out. Before anyone can learn to speak, they must master non-verbal communication and inferencing. Using the acronym HAWK, we can describe these necessary building blocks for talking. How to pay for speech therapy? Get health insurance for children now.Read more...